Monday, March 21, 2011

Birthday Girls

Last weekend I had two cakes to deliver to two ladies at my church that were celebrating birthdays on the same day. One was a semi surprise ordered by a husband for his sweet wife. Wouldn't you be happy if your husband got you this for your birthday?

The only request I had from the husband was to make it girly so I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This swirl design has become one of my favorites by far. I think its so pretty and looks great in any color combination. So to give this one an extra girly touch I went with pink and white and added a fondant bow and "H" that were dusted with...you guessed it Luster Dust! (I love the stuff) I just wish the camera would pick it up better
This was white cake filled with chocolate cream cheese and iced with classic butter cream.
Happy Birthday Heidi!!!
The other cake for this day was a really simple design but the flavor combo is so delish, it makes up for the simple design.


Chocolate cake filled with raspberry jam and iced with chocolate butter cream...YUM!
Happy Birthday Tami!!!!




This little cutie was for my sister in law Carrie. Her birthday was the week before but since I was busy with cakes for the Wical Wedding her cake had to be moved back..better late than never I guess :)
I did a 6" mini cake and used cake wraps to create this design. Cake wraps are a really thin edible "paper" that have a printed pattern on them. You simply ice your cake then wrap the paper around and add your border. I added the "C" on top just because I love personalizing and monogrammed things. This cake wrap was perfect for Carrie because it reminded me of one of her favorite things...Vera Bradley!
Happy Birthday Carrie!!!!!!!




Friday, March 18, 2011

Wical Wedding

I was so honored when Amanda and Josh asked me to be part of their special day by baking both their cakes. I loved the designs they picked for their cakes. Simple but very beautiful! So here are several pictures of the cakes

Here is a picture of the back of the van before we left. The baby shower cake from the previous post was being delivered on the same night. When we got to Knoxville and opened the back of the van, the smell was unbelievably delicious!!!
Amanda's wedding cake was the first time I'd done four tiers. I was really pleased with how it turned out. It was alternating tiers of white and chocolate cake. The chocolate tiers were filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting, another first but SO good!


Blue fondant band on each tier, fresh flowers and a "W" rhinestone topper the bride provided





Here I am putting the finishing touches on the grooms cake. Red velvet cake filled chocolate cream cheese and iced with chocolate buttercream. Swirl design was done with the buttercream and then the cake was topped with these white and chocolate dipped tuxedo strawberries. I have to give credit to my wonderful hubby again for making the strawberries! Isn't he the greatest!

I love this picture!



While I worked on getting the cakes set up, Isaac took a few pics of the reception space. It was held at Hardscapes, Etc. in West Knoxville




Josh and Amanda's first dance.
Again I have to say how thankful I am for Isaac. He was a great help once again and I couldn't have done this without him.
Congratulations Amanda & Josh on your wedding!










Sweet Sixteen & Sports Theme

So after a few days of resting from the busiest cake weekend ever it was time to get back to work. The first cake of March was for an old friend of mine Mary. Her daughter Alesia was turning 16 and Mary wanted to surprise her with a VeroniCake for her special day. Mary gave me total freedom to decorate the cake however I wanted as long as it was pink and green. And here is Alesia's cake

Since I had freedom to do this one however I wanted, I used this opportunity to make the numbers on the top a little different than I usually do them. I was really happy with the way they turned out. What do you think?

This cake was white with buttercream. The banding, circles, numbers & stars were fondant. Numbers and stars I dusted with a little of luster dust.
Happy Sweet 16 Alesia!!!!
A few days later I delivered this cute little cake for a baby shower that was being hosted by a favorite customer of mine Lindsay. I really love making cakes for her because she has the greatest reactions ever! Believe it or not I get really nervous with every cake because I want it to be perfect for whoever is ordering it...Lindsay always does a great job of letting me know how much she loves her cakes and that means so much to me


Sports theme made to match the bedding and shower decorations.
Welcome Baby Jayden and Thank You Lindsay!


Monday, March 14, 2011

Busiest Weekend Yet

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty sure the last weekend in February was my busiest cake weekend to date. I've included everything from that weekend with the exception of Kelsi's cake (previous post) in this post so I appologize in advance for this being so long.
The weekend started out with a request for a little guy who loves drums and The Fresh Beat Band. Now I have to admitt, The Fresh Beat Band wasn't on the top of my favorite kid show list BUT after watching it a few times for research Isaac and I couldn't get their songs out of our heads! We ended up having such a fun time decorating this cake
The top tier of this cake was chocolate and the bottom tier white cake. It was iced with buttercream but as you can see had A LOT of fondant work.

And just in case you hadn't figured it out, the top tier is a drum and the bottom a keybord. The keys are colored to match the bright colors of The Fresh Beats!
Next up was a mini cake/cupcake combo ordered by my sweet friend Jessica for a bridal shower she was hosting. The colors for the shower were pink and brown.
I topped half the cupcakes with a basic flower

And the others with little bows


And this is what everything looked like together. I really loved this. From the simple yet stylish design to the flavor, chocolate & chocolate....YUM!



NEXT UP..Park Place Kids Birthday Cupcakes
The last Sunday of each month the childrens ministry at our church gives cupcakes to all the kids who have celebrated a birthday during that month. Guess who their baker is???
The birthday cupcakes are white with classic buttercream and usually topped with some sort of seasonal sprinkle then individually boxed. Lately I have been doing a seasonal cutout with my Cricut to top the boxes.
Since Valentines Day had passed and Easter was still a while off I went with something neutral but fun!





I know this has nothing to do with cupcakes but I decorated the gift bag for one of the birthday parties we attended that weekend. I thought it was cute and wanted to share :)







Moving right along...this was another first time request for VeroniCakes. The birthday boy had requested a Michael Jordan themed cake for his party. Normally I would have suggested a basketball but I'd already made a basketball cake for this little guys cousin so I wanted him to have something different. I chose a basketball jersey in the colors of The Bulls

This was chocolate cake with buttercream. The letters, numbers, and trim were fondant
Happy 5th Birthday Walker!








Last but certainly not least I wanted to make up a little something as a gift for a very special friend of mine, Carey. Something just for her that she didn't have to share! :)

This was a white cake with chocolate filling iced with classic buttercream. I topped it with fondant ribbon roses and leaves that I dusted with luster dust.


Happy Birthday Carey!!!!













The BEST HUSBAND EVER!

The weekend of February 25-27 was probably the busiest weekend of caking I have EVER had. Somehow I'd gotten several dates mixed up and ended up with six orders all due that weekend, along with attending two birthday celebrations. I knew it was going to be CRAZY but thankfully Isaac was off work and able to help. Since one of the cakes on the list was for our niece Kelsi I assigned that one to Isaac. Kelsi is such a sweet girl and the love of her life is reading. My sister in law and I thought it would be great if Kelsi's cake could look like one of her favorite books. I baked the cake and made the fondant and icing, showed Isaac a picture of the book, and off he went!

Here he is hard at work. He doesn't like to admit it but he loves doing cakes as much as I do and he is VERY creative!
Here's a close-up of the top half

And a close up of the bottom half. He drew that little stick guy freehand with buttercream!!!!


The Finished Cake....AWESOME JOB ISAAC!




And here is Kelsi with her cake! She was so excited! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband who loves me and supports me and is always there to help out when I need him. I love him so much!





A New First..Christening Cake

I was so excited when I was asked to create a cake for a baby christening. One of the websites I frequent for ideas has so many beautiful cakes for christening that I asked the client to check it out for ideas for her cake. We loved them all so much but narrowed it down and combined the look of two cakes to come up with this beautiful cake
The cake had one chocolate tier and one white tier all covered with buttercream. The band, bows and monogram are fondant
The one element this client absolutely wanted for her cake was a pink cross as the topper so I made this one using fondant and gumpaste. You can't really tell from the pictures but it's also covered with luster dust to give it an extra special look!
Here's the finished cake. I loved the luster dust SO MUCH that I also added it to the band and bows and ...the entire cake!! I wish the camera would have picked up more of the shimmer because this cake was just darling! It's inspired me to make one for Coco's dedication.
Congratulations on your Christening Mackenzie!

Valentines and A Baby Shower

For Valentines Day I had a request from my good friend Amy Jo. She wanted something special to share with Emery's class for their Valentines Day Party. I suggested one of my new favorites..the mini cake and cupcake combo. I love this combo because you get the best of both worlds, a cake to make an impression and cupcakes that make serving so much easier, and as you know cupcakes are becoming more and more of a trend these days. So here's what I came up with
White cupcakes and buttercream icing with fondant hearts

Since she was taking this to a classroom of second graders I decided to put cupcakes on the board with the cake rather than use the cupcake tower



All boxed up....the mini cake was topped with a big fondant heart and fondnat ribbons. Hope it was a hit!


Later that same week it was time to bake cupcakes for Missy May's baby shower. Missy was expecting a baby boy, Parker. I had to recruite my assistant A.K.A husband to help out with the toppers for these cupcakes. He did a WONDERFUL job cutting out each of these tiny little feet and toes. They were a huge hit at the shower! Thanks Honey

Boxed up and ready to go chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream
(my favorite!)




On display at the shower




The guest of honor Missy May! Doesn't she look FABULOUS? This was such a great night. It was one of the funnest showers I'd ever been to and Missy got lots of great gifts.
Congratulations Missy and Jim May..and big sister Sarah..on the birth of sweet Parker!







Catching Up

So when I decided to start a cake blog I had every intention on updating it as often as possible but as you can see it's been almost two months since I've blogged and believe me...I've done LOTS of baking in the last two months. I will try my best to get caught up and post pics of all these amazing cake creations! Also after 4 long years we finally have high speed internet at our house! (it's about time AT&T!!!!) So uploading pictures won't take hours but minutes WHOO HOO!! SO enough rambling and on to the cakes :)
January 29th was cupcakes and mini cake for Meghan Frederick's baby shower. Meg was expecting a baby boy named Henry Austin. My awesomely talented friend Ashley made this artwork as a gift to baby Henry and I used this and the other shower decorations as my inspiration for the cake/cupcakes

Custom artwork to match Hernry's nursery made by Ashley Longnecker
Mini cake and cupcakes




Ashley also made these little blocks for baby Henry Austin as well.

Congratulations Meghan and Eric Frederick on the birth of sweet Henry!